The Sick Rose
by re-familiarize
Summary: Trust is a fragile thing. /ChandraAngela, pastfic based on the episode 1961./


Because I ship the weirdest shit ever.

_O Rose, thou art sick!  
The invisible worm  
That flies in the night,  
In the howling storm, _

_Has found out thy bed  
Of crimson joy,  
And his dark secret love  
Does thy life destroy_.  
-- _The Sick Rose_, by William Blake

* * *

"Do you trust me, Angela?"

It's a simple question, but Angela's gaze remains fixed on her lap as she contemplates her answer. _No_ would be the truth, but she wants Dr. Suresh to trust her, too, so she sweeps her hair back and flicks her eyes up to Chandra, smiling as winningly as she can. It's a thin-lipped and barely passes as a real smile, but it seems to do the trick and she watches as he heaves out a breath he probably didn't know he was holding and smiles back at her.

"Sure." Dr. Suresh is pleased with this answer and pushes his chair back, stepping away from the table to rummage through the bag he has sitting on the floor. The fluorescent light hanging above Angela's head is too bright and harsh, so she drops her eyes back down to her lap while she waits for him to find whatever it is he needs.

He sits back down in his seat with a 'whoosh' of air, and he beams charmingly at Angela. He's really not that bad looking; a little strange, but then again, he's Indian, right? Of course they'd look different than what she was used to. Chandra sets down the thing he'd been searching for on the table in front of him, and Angela looks at it with a wince. It's a needle. One of the biggest she's ever seen. She cringes when she catches the way the overbright fluorescent light glints off of its hypersharp point.

"I've been working on something for a while now. My superiors here have placed me in charge of--" and here he falters briefly, as though he's gone too far, but he quickly recovers and the boyish, charming excitement that he was known for came back in an instant, "that doesn't matter. You see, I'm attempting to find a way to suppress the powers of those with abilities. I believe I've made a breakthrough in my research recently, and this serum--"

"You mean," Angela cuts him off excitedly, leaning halfway across the table in her eagerness, heart pounding, "you could stop my dreams? Make them go away forever?"

Chandra looks thoughtful for a moment. "If that's what you wanted, then yes, we could continue to give you the serum indefinitely, and hopefully keep your powers at bay. But it's still only an experimental formula, there's no guarantee--"

But Angela doesn't let him finish; she's already rolling up her sleeve, her arms milky-white and whitewashed under the false lights. "I don't care. Give it to me."

Chanda considers her for a moment before sterilizing her and grabbing her arm with one hand and the needle in the other. "You will feel a slight pinch," he murmurs quietly as he slides the silver tip under her skin.

It _burns_.

Angela gasps loudly as what feels like a liquid flame seeps into her veins, spreading through her body as swiftly as a crackle of electricity. She clenches the table until her knuckles go white with her free hand while Dr. Suresh finishes injecting the formula into her bloodstream. Her pulse pounds hard enough in her ears that she's sure Dr. Suresh can hear it, and she stands up tipsily, the room spinning slightly. The lights seem dimmer, but she manages to step away from the table on shaky feet, rubbing at her arm where Chandra injected her.

She turns to look back at him, and he smiles. "Thank you for your cooperation."

She leaves without a word.

---

_there's dust dust everywhere the wind the wind the wind and the thunder so loud that it shakes the earth to its foundations_

_alice where are you_

_alice_

_**alice**_

_alice **alice** **ALICE**_

_the copy of alice in wonderland falls to her feet and mother father are on the ground riddled with tiny, tiny holes and there are worms in their eyes and alice says angela, banana, why are you leaving me?_

_do you trust me, angela?_

Angela jerks out of the worst nightmare she's ever had, drenched in sweat, and tumbles out of bed, half-delirious. She doesn't bother to check if Alice is still asleep in the bed beside her; she knows, she _knows_ what's going to happen, and she has to warn someone, has to stop it before the storm comes.

The door clatters shut behind her, and in her bare feet and nightgown, she stumbles the entire way across the compound to Dr. Suresh's makeshift house, muttering to herself. The moon, a silent observer, watches indifferently as she crashes up the steps to his front porch and collapses there, beating frantically at his door.

"Doctor. Doctor Suresh. The storm, the storm..." She sobs inaudibly to an invisible audience, her words slurring until it's a continuous mantra of _thstrm thstrm scoming coming coming_.

When Chandra answers the door, his hair is tousled and he's rubbing his eyes, looking alarmed and like he just fell out of bed as well. He catches sight of Angela muttering and swaying at his feet and starts, reaching out to pull her up by the upper arms.

"Angela!" He cries in alarm, shaking her shoulders. Her eyes roll up to him and she stares blankly; they've gone a milky white and she barely seems to notice him. "Angela, what's happened? Is everything alright?"

"The storm," she slurrs, collapsing against him, her hands searching around his neck frantically, "'s coming. The dust, the dust, it's coming."

"Angela, please." He pleads, a guilty note that no one but them can hear plaguing his voice. "This must be a side effect of the serum... _damn_ it! Angela, please, wake up."

"Everyone is dead," Her voice has gone cold, and the words roll off her tongue in a monotone so tinny that it makes him shudder. Chandra would have thought she were lucid had it not been for the white film that remained over her eyes. "there's no one here. They're all gone. Alice. Alice, where are you?"

Her hands fumble at his neck again, and she pulls away from Chandra, a completely blank look on her face. It frightens Chandra, and he grabs her face in his hands, clutching her tightly.

"Angela, please. You _must wake up_."

"Never trust them. Never."

She leans in kisses him, then, and his hold on her face is still solid. He could push her away if he wanted to. But as it stands, he can do nothing but allow her (allow _himself_) this, the moon bathing the porch in a silvery light. Angela's lips are cold and so are her hands, so frail and thin against his shoulders.

He drags her inside. She whispers prophecies into his neck as he carries her to bed and she reaches out to him with arms skeletal-thin in the moonlight, pulling his wiry doctor's body to her young (so, so _young_) and supple form. Angela sobs quietly as he makes love to her, and his heart breaks, because this girl, he wants this girl to _trust_ him, and here he is, taking advantage of this spell he's put her under. Their bodies connect in a disjointed crosshatched way and he know that he's her first, and that knowledge burns inside his chest like a dirty ember. Her eyes remain expressionless and her mouth forms small 'o's and words that he can't hear and she gasps, remaining nigh-unresponsive underneath him.

But she eventually comes, and when she does, the white finally vanishes from her eyes, and she stares up at him with such confusion that he can only blink in horror at what he's done. He rolls off of her body, still so cold that it's almost corpselike, and turns to face the wall, his back to her.

Neither of them sleep.

---

In the morning, nothing has changed.

"Angela, do you trust me?"

_No._ "Yes."

* * *

I should probably go to hell for shipping this like burning. Oh well.

Review at your leisure, kittens.


End file.
